Sales by the world's biggest arms companies increased significantly at a time of global economic recession, figures released today show.

The top 100 arms-producing companies increased their sales by $14.8bn (£9.1bn) to total more than $400bn in 2009, a rise of 8% in real terms, according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

Arms sales by the companies have increased by nearly 60% in real terms since 2002, it said.

Military spending by the US government was described by Sipri arms industry expert Susan Jackson as a "key factor in arms sales increases for US arms-producing and military services companies and for western European companies with a foothold in the US arms and military services market".

The report lists Lockheed Martin as the world's leading company in terms of arms sales, valued at $33.43bn in 2009. The US company was followed closely by Britain's BAE Systems, with sales valued at $33.25bn. BAE came ahead of four US companies – Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon.

BAE was by far the biggest west European arms-producing company, followed by the transnational company, EADS, and Italy-based Finmeccanica.

Cowper-Coles, told the SFO in 2006 when he was UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia that Saudi princes were threatening to withdraw cooperation on counter terrorism if it persisted with its investigation into bribery allegations.

BAE, which has shed 15,000 jobs over the past two years, is being hit by cuts in the US and UK defence budgets. The company warned last week that sales of weapons and armoured vehicles – generated mostly in the US – would be lower than it had previously anticipated this year, after falling 25% year on year.